Trump promised The Wall, celebrates a fence

Story here.

Trannies for Kevin Williamson: National Review thinks Ta-Nehisi Coates' favorable opinion of Kevin Williamson is a good thing

David French, here:

If Ta-Nehisi Coates can see the virtues of his work, then perhaps there’s room for you [progressives] to open your minds. National Review’s loss is The Atlantic’s gain, but even more importantly, the marketplace of ideas benefits from his transition.

Coulter at Columbia: I knew Trump was a shallow, lazy ignoramus, and I didn't care

At a debate with Mickey Kaus.

Story here.

Trump lazy? Now you've gone too far, Ann Coulter, too far!

National Review's Kevin Williamson looks left and heads to The Atlantic

Where Kevin and his sneering elitism will find a larger audience. Slate's Jordan Weissmann pretends not to get it: "Above all else, Williamson is something fairly rare in U.S. media: an explicit, unrepentant elitist."

After three revisions, 4Q2017 real GDP still comes up short at 2.9% annualized

That's up from 2.5% in the second estimate, but still down from 3.2% in 3Q.

That means that despite the holiday shopping season and all the expenditures of hurricane recovery, the economy still slowed down in the fourth quarter of last year. It should have been the best quarter yet if the economy were truly on the upswing.

To make matters worse, 1Q2018 is shaping up to be a horrible 1.8%.

BBC calls convicted, mostly Pakistani, grooming gang 'Oxford Men', which ought to outrage the elite university's graduates everywhere

Laugh of the Day, Stormy Daniels edition: If you want Trump to screw you repeatedly, you have to be one of his voters

If Trump wants his own version of the Iran-Contra scandal, this is as good a way as any to do it

While Rush Limbaugh keeps trying to find a way to rationalize Trump's signature on the omnibus, Laura Ingraham minced no words

On her radio show this morning she called this a betrayal.

And that's what it was.

In other words, Stormy Daniels on 60 Minutes was a giant nothing burger

Robert Shiller: Great Depression tariffs did not plausibly, directly affect economic growth in a major degree

Everywhere we turn we hear the opposite. It's standard operating procedure to blame protectionism for the Great Depression. Shiller knows it can't be demonstrated from the data. Hence the psychological argument. 

Quoted here:

Shiller said he did not believe there would be a significant inflationary effect to the U.S. from steel and aluminum tariffs, but he warned that heated trade rhetoric from both sides could send the American economy reeling into a recession.

"When you ask about the size of the impact on the economy, I think a lot of it is more psychological than direct, unless they really slam on tariffs," he said. The Yale economist pointed to the "most famous tariff war of all" during the Great Depression, which he said did not "plausibly, directly" affect economic growth "in a major degree," but it may have helped "destroy confidence" and willingness to plan for the future.

"It's exactly those 'wait and see' attitudes that cause a recession," he explained.

Actually, there's about 100.8 billion people not on Facebook

Because they're dead.

Laws restrain only the lawful

Seen here in the comments.

Freedom who loves must first be wise and good

Freedom who loves, must first be wise and good;

But from that mark how far they rove we see,

For all this waste of wealth, and loss of blood.

-- John Milton (1608-1674)

CNBC story on conservative anger with Trump deliberately omits the centrality of differences over illegal immigration policy

That's what Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter are all about, after all, but CNBC just dances around this as if it didn't really exist.

Ann Coulter only tweets almost every day a "border wall lack-of-progress" update.

Conservatives are outraged also that Trump would trade a wall for DACA-type amnesty. DACA is illegal. Obama's executive order was unconstitutional. Trump acts like it's no big deal, just like Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin becoming dictators for life is no big deal to him, either.

It's a propaganda technique: Pretend something doesn't exist, and it doesn't. It's called marginalization. The communist Alinsky made it one of his rules for radicals. To talk about what your enemy wants to talk about is to assist your enemy by publicizing his issues, so don't do it.

See for yourself here.

The kids are a little late to the game: The violence against children began when we chose abortion over them

There were 167 votes against the omnibus in the US House: 90 Republican, 77 Democrat

The House Roll Call is here, the Senate here. There were 32 votes against in the Senate: 23 Republican, 8 Democrat, and Bernie Sanders.

For all the previous action on HR 1625, see here.

87% of the Michigan Congressional Delegation, both Republican and Democrat, voted "Yea", except for good guys House Republicans Justin Amash and Jack Bergman.

Notable "Yea" votes included Republican goodfellas:

Kevin Brady of Texas, Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, Duncan Hunter of California (ouch), Darrell Issa of California, Will Hurd of Texas, Peter King of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Kevin McCarthy of California, Michael McCaul of Texas, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, Devin Nunes of California, Peter Roskam of Illinois, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, of course, Steve "Bullseye" Scalise of Louisiana, and Joe "You Lie!" Wilson of South Carolina.

Say it isn't so, Joe!   

The line of the week was Rush Limbaugh's: "Whenever you see the word omnibus, think trash can"

Here:

So on this, for example, this omnibus, whenever you see that word, folks, just think of a trash can. No! In fact, think of a Christmas tree with anything you want gift wrapped underneath it. That’s what omnibus means.

He had it right the first time. A conservative's trash can is a liberal's Christmas tree.

Mark Levin yesterday said he thinks we've reached the point of no return

If that's true then it's down to us or them.

Michael Savage yesterday said it feels like we lost an election

It still does.